Shri Baba's Life, Miracles and Preaching

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

Human incarnation is a homogeneous mixture of God (Narayana) and human being (Nara) existing as a single-phase alloy of two metals. The alloy of gold as major component and copper as minor component is taken as gold only. Similarly, human incarnation is taken as God. The live wire is treated as current. God is unimaginable even to intelligence and certainly none can see God with eyes (Na chakshusha… Veda). But, the Veda says that one blessed soul sees God directly (Kaschitdhirah…). God as the pure component is not seen directly. Same God can be seen through a medium of human being (Manushiimtanum… Gita). Everybody takes Him as a human being only as seen by eyes. But only one blessed soul sees Him as God. Vyasa saw Krishna as God while preaching the Gita to Arjuna and so he called Krishna as God (Bhagavan). After hearing the Gita through Sanjaya, Dhrutarashtra called Krishna as a cheat, who made Arjuna to fight against his sons. Same Krishna was taken as God by Vyasa and as a cheat by Dhrutarashtra. The aspect as God is Nivrutti and as a co-human being in the society is Pravrutti.

Shri Baba never said that He is God. He was referring always Shirdi Sai Baba existing in Him as God. God will never claim Himself as God to all the public. He reveals Himself only to a rare deserving devotee in person secretly, since it cannot be digested by all. Krishna revealed Himself as God to Arjuna only in person and told that it should be kept as a top secret (Rahasyam hyetaduttam… Gita). In the court of Kauravas, He behaved as a human being only in public. Majority is always jealous and egoistic to digest the concept of contemporary human incarnation. Hence, the concept that everybody is God (Advaita) is frequently used by human incarnation to attract all initially and to pacify their ego. Shri Baba was also telling that everybody is God and should behave like God by protecting justice in Pravrutti. It is only the faith of devotees to believe Him as God. Baba tried His best to set up a good peaceful society and never encouraged Nivrutti in masses. He never said that people should come and worship Him as God. He might have allowed the devotion of a few rigid devotees of Nivrutti. What all He wished was only a good society with protected justice. All His miracles were spontaneous and there was no announcement so far before performing any miracle. Only demons boast themselves as God by announcing miracles. God hides His identity and divinity. Even if He exhibits it, it is only to strengthen Pravrutti. In Nivrutti, the divinity is masked, and God always hides Himself and tries to mislead the devotee. Even if He expresses divinity, it will be purely personal like the Gita to Arjuna only or the secret flute song to Gopikas only in Brundavanam. Nivrutti is always reserved to a very few devotees, who stand firm in spite of His severe opposition and God reveals Himself secretly to such few blessed souls. His effort is always for Pravrutti, when He is exposed to public.

Cosmic vision is shown as greatest miracle in three situations by Krishna. It was shown to Kauravas, when the Lord preached Pravrutti only for peaceful and harmonious co-living of Pandavas and Kauravas. He tried to bring the peace and establish Pravrutti even through the miracle, which was considered as magic by undeserving atheistic kauravas. In preaching the Gita also, Pravrutti was starting point and final result was only to make Arjuna to fight in Pravrutti. The same miracle was shown to achieve the protection of justice by making Arjuna to fight with evil forces. Finally, sage Udanka also blamed Krishna for killing so many people through the war and was prepared to curse the Lord. This is also an issue of Pravrutti and the same miracle was shown to him. But in the case of Gopikas, such miracle was not shown since it was not necessary. Those sages have seen the cosmic vision and realized the very purpose of such vision already in their previous births. It was pure Nivrutti without any trace of Pravrutti. Rama never showed any miracle to Hanuman who recognized Rama as God and served Him through complete surrender in the path of Nivrutti.

Pravrutti is the path of following justice in worldly life and many a time, miracles are necessary to prevent injustice. Nivrutti is the path to please the Lord extensively through unbound love and total surrender with full faith to get a place in His heart and to serve Him continuously. In Pravrutti, acceptance of God is needed for which miracles are essential. Acceptance of God is the basis to control sin in society and there is no point of love to God. Fear and respect for God form the basis here for which the existence of unimaginable power of God is to be basically believed. In Pravrutti, the unimaginable power of God proved by miracles plays the key role. The benefit of heaven for following justice and the punishment in hell for doing injustice are based on the unimaginable power of God only. The place of God in Pravrutti is only just as the source of such power. In Nivrutti, there is no such need since it is fully filled with extreme love to God. God alone occupies the entire place in Nivrutti and there is no place for any other concept like justice, injustice etc., here.

Gopikas told the same to Uddhava that there is no place in them even for the entry of a single word except Krishna! There was partial realization in the case of Arjuna, even though temporarily there was a total change to fight in the war. In the case of Udanka, there was a total change and the sage spent his rest of life in the devotion of Krishna believing the concept of contemporary human incarnation. In both the cases of Arjuna and Udanka, the Lord also exposed Nivrutti since both were deserving devotees. But the guidance in Nivrutti was purely personal and was never made public issue. There is no need of cosmic vision (Vishwarupam) for deserving devotees of Nivrutti and even if there is need, it will be given personally. For the sake of Pravrutti, miracles are essential and Baba showed several miracles already. Giving cosmic vision to public openly proved futile in the case of Kauravas already, who commented that it was a sort of laser technology. Even if Shri Baba gives cosmic vision today before public, again the reaction will be the same old wine in new bottle! You will not believe and accept the preaching unless the miracles are shown like the uniform of police officer. Even if the miracles are shown, you will dispose them as pure magic show and will not accept the preaching.

God need not guide in Nivrutti to jump from higher plane to highest plane using the same principle of analysis of truth of justice, which was already used in Pravrutti in jumping from high plane to higher plane. There is no need to repeatedly preach the same principle again in Nivrutti. Moreover, God does not like to preach the Nivrutti since He is personally involved in Nivrutti, He being the highest plane. He discourages Nivrutti and hence, He discouraged Gopikas to withdraw from His bond since Gopikas were completely in Nivrutti without even a trace of smell of Pravrutti. The issue became 100% personal affair, which is the purest Nivrutti. Since Gopikas were very much stingy in their bonds towards Him, He did some justice to them by dancing with them in the midnight without any publicity. The Lord interacted with them continuously in Goloka after their death so that there is no publicity of the fruit of Nivrutti on the earth.

Need of Nivrutti to Establish Pravrutti

Nivrutti is always kept secret because He does not like many to enter Nivrutti. Many cannot also enter Nivrutti. But the same Lord encouraged Arjuna to have bond with Him as God throughout the Gita. How to understand this special behavior of Lord in the case of Arjuna? The Lord encouraged Arjuna to have highest bond with Him. Bond with God is Nivrutti, whether it is the case of Gopikas or Arjuna. But why God discouraged Gopikas and encouraged Arjuna in the same bond? Gopikas were in pure Nivrutti. But the case of Arjuna was quite different. If you do sharp analysis here, you will understand the point. Arjuna sacrificed the happiness of himself, of issues and of wife for the sake of fight with grandfather. In one angle, that is correct. But in another angle, fight with Bhishma is justified because Bhishma was supporting evil forces in the war. The first angle overlapped the second angle and now confused Arjuna cannot cut the bond with Bhishma for the sake of himself and his family. Bhishma happens to be the strongest bond in Pravrutti for Arjuna. That bond can be cut only by the bond with God, which is the highest bond. The weaker bonds of family of Arjuna cannot cut the bond with Bhishma, which were already sacrificed for the sake of Bhishma. Now, the Lord preached Nivrutti, not with selfishness and to project Himself as the highest. The Lord preached Nivrutti perfectly so that the bond with Bhishma is cut by the bond with God so that finally Arjuna is ready to kill Bhishma and other evil forces supported by Bhishma. The Nivrutti here stressed by Lord is only to establish Pravrutti. But in the case of Gopikas, such need of Pravrutti does not exist, since Gopikas have no place for anything except the Lord. Since it is pure Nivrutti only, the Lord opposed such pure Nivrutti as usual.

Today, the need for the majority in the society is to cut the unjust bonds and replace them by justified bonds. The justified bonds have no strength to cut the unjust bonds because the unjust bonds already cut them. Justice is already defeated by injustice and now again the same justice cannot defeat the injustice. To cut the bond with injustice, most powerful bond with God can alone do it. Now Nivrutti, which is the establishment of bond with God, is needed in Pravrutti for everybody. If the love to God cannot replace the injustice, atleast fear to God is needed. If the student is not studying due to love and respect to the teacher, atleast the cane of teacher is required. To establish bond with God or fear to God, the proof for the very basic existence of God is needed. If you can explain everything and if there is nothing beyond your understanding, then you are the God. Therefore, unimaginable God with unimaginable power is to be established and that can be done only through unimaginable miracles.

In the Gita, first, Krishna tried His level best to convince Arjuna through the analysis of Pravrutti itself. But the bond with Bhishma was very strong and no bond of Pravrutti including self can replace it. Hence, God has to introduce Nivrutti, which deals with the establishment of bond with God, so that it can cut the bond of Arjuna with Bhishma. For this purpose, Krishna praised the fruit of Nivrutti, so that a common man can be attracted based on his human psychology of attraction to fruit. Otherwise, in pure Nivrutti, there is no fruit except the service to God.

Assume that a fellow is fond of drinking wine, which is unjust bond. Drinking milk is good for health and it is the justified bond. But any lot of teaching about the merits of milk and defects of wine could not change him from drinking the wine that gives immediate happiness and he does not understand the health given by milk in long range. Now, the only way leftover is to preach him about God and about the unlimited happiness that can be derived from the association with God. The existence of God is to be proved to him through a petty miracle that creates faith in the existence of God in his mind and about the possible infinite happiness from God in future. Now, the Nivrutti of God is introduced to him with the attraction of eternal bliss as best fruit of Nivrutti to attract him to Nivrutti and divert from wine.

This is not pure Nivrutti in which no fruit is introduced including bliss. In Pure Nivrutti, only miserable service is the fruit introduced to discourage the devotee. God never teaches the pure Nivrutti to devotee. The devotee comes by himself or herself to God for pure Nivrutti and does not go back in spite of hectic opposition from God. Gopikas in the Bhagavatam are devotees of pure Nivrutti. Goloka is above the abode of God and God kept them on His head, but they were not having any desire for Goloka except the desire to be with Krishna. God gave them His eternal presence in the form of Krishna in Goloka. Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita is a devotee of Nivrutti aimed at Pravrutti. The level of Gopikas is superior than that of Arjuna. Gopikas got salvation in that birth, but Arjuna got salvation after two births. Arjuna was also sage called as Nara and was almost near to the level of Gopikas and hence, the Nivrutti preached in the Gita is almost near to pure Nivrutti of the Bhagavatam. Krishna Himself preached Nivrutti to Arjuna and tried to attract him to God through the Gita so that the bond with God can cut his bond with Bhishma. Any lot of stress given about the bonds of self, his sons and kingdom can’t cut his bond with his grandfather. Only the bond with God can cut his bond with Bhishma (grandfather). In the case of Gopikas, there is no need to try to attract them to God since they were already tremendously attracted to God. Hence, there is no need of preaching to Gopikas, who have already come to the test of Datta (Krishna) directly. They have already completed enough preaching in several past births. Nivrutti with fruit of infinite bliss is stage of preaching and Nivrutti with miserable service is the stage of final test. One passes the test if he or she is prepared for miserable service only, forgetting the bliss as fruit. The moment one is attracted to bliss, bliss disappears. The moment one is attracted to miserable service, bliss appears. If you are prepared to serve Him like a dog at His feet through total surrender, you are in the post of God. If you are attracted to the post of God, you will become the dog at His feet! Your attitude and the fruit are related in reverse way because the words God and dog are reverse! Except for the need in Pravrutti, God would not like to preach Nivrutti to anybody since it appears as the projection of self by God. People always try to find the wrong side of any concept due to jealousy.

Shankara used the weapon of Advaita by stating that everybody is God to pacify the natural tendency of jealousy due to ego. Once a devotee asked Shri Satya Sai Baba about His claim as God. Baba replied that everybody is God including that person. Baba told that He has realized Himself as God, whereas that person did not realize that truth. The person asked this question only with jealousy and that was pacified with the answer of Baba. Immediate requirement should be seen and not the absolute truth, which can be preached in long run. Shri Baba never told that He is God in majority and Krishna also never said like that in public. Krishna declared that He is God repeatedly to Arjuna in person only, since Arjuna deserves Nivrutti. Even there, Krishna spoke like that only for Pravrutti and not to boast about Himself like a demon. Similarly, Baba expressed miracles only to correct the Pravrutti in the society. The contemporary human incarnation gives assurance to you regarding the possibility of becoming God in this very life itself, because the fruit after death may be a created story as per general thinking. Hence, today, the requirement for majority is to establish the existence of unimaginable God through miracles and cut the attraction of injustice by the attraction to God or at least by the fear to God. The devotees trying for pure Nivrutti are always in minority and can be guided personally. But, today, even the majority needs the knowledge of Nivrutti so that the concept of God and becoming God in this life itself (Jiivanmukti) should be understood. If the fear to God is established through invisible hell created by unimaginable God, that may serve the purpose of controlling injustice to certain extent. But all do not fear, since some are careless criminals. But they can be changed by the love to become God, which is Nivrutti. Hence, there is a need of propagation of Nivrutti also for the sake of Pravrutti as done in the Gita.

50-50 Probability for the Existence of Hell

The invisible hell can be established to a scientist through the concept of infinite space also even without the unimaginable miracle. I have not shown the hell to the scientist in the infinite space. But the scientist has also not shown the limits of this infinite space so that I can be sure about the absence of hell anywhere in the space. This brings 50-50 probability of non-existence and existence of hell. If the hell is non-existent and if still, I am careful in not doing the sin, I have not lost anything. Moreover, I am benefited in not having any tension due to fear from court of law here in doing the sin. If there is hell, the scientist will be punished terribly in the hell apart from the tension of sin here. In this way also, the cosmic vision introducing the infinite space gives knowledge of the probable hell to control sin. In cosmic vision, Arjuna saw not only the stars but also all the energetic bodies of souls in the upper worlds. This establishes the concept of the soul taking a sensitive energetic body (Yatanashariram or Bhogashariram) to go to hell or heaven. Hence, the Gita is Nivrutti, based on and aimed at Pravrutti only. You need not criticize Krishna for claiming Himself as God repeatedly in the Gita as self-boasting and trying Arjuna to make slave to Him. God does not require any service or any pleasure from anybody or anything because He is already omnipotent and infinite Ocean of bliss. Devotees are trying to reach Him to get bliss from Him and transfer their sins to Him. God is not gaining anything from the devotee except the suffering of his sins. Hence, God is not interested in this Nivrutti, which is a business ending in sure loss and no gain! God does not like to take the sins of devotees often, except very few exceptional devotees, because such transfer of sins is a disturbance to the administration of the cycle of deeds also as per the divine law. But today, devotees are thinking that God is trying for Nivrutti to get some devotees for His service and some are thinking that the post of God cannot be continued unless He gets certain number of liberated souls through Nivrutti like certain number of members of assembly needed for the ruling party to continue in the Government!

God in human form also, who generates the divine knowledge, does not need the service of anybody in its propagation, since the knowledge itself gets propagated without any effort like the scent of a flower. Once it is generated, it itself spreads everywhere. The knowledge of a scholar is like water, whereas the knowledge of God in human form is like fire. Yohan says that his preaching is like purifying with water-bath, whereas the preaching of Jesus is like purifying with fire-bath. Water purifies the place where it is poured. But the fire put in one place spreads and purifies the entire mass by burning and turning it into ash. The purification by water is limited and also is temporary. If you wash any item with water, it becomes dirty by next day. But if you burn any item with fire, it is permanently purified without any change. Hence, the divine knowledge preached even to a single person like Arjuna personally in secrecy, spreads all over the world like fire and its effect of purification is forever. Jesus also preached the knowledge to a few people only and did not publish it in His time. But today, it has spread all over the world. The divine knowledge of God spreads by its own divinity and potency and not by the help of the devotees, who spread it. The efforts of devotees in propagation are only formal and nominal like the efforts of monkeys in the service of Rama. The devotees are sure to succeed in the service of God and to get the eternal grace of God. Shri Satya Sai Baba told that He is catering the food with smile cooked by Shirdi Sai Baba, who was furious. The cook will not allow anyone to enter kitchen because you will find the board of ‘No Admission’ into the kitchen and you will find many to eat in the dining hall. You can understand the majority around Baba today and the minority around Baba in Shirdi previously. Cooking means adjusting the truth of spiritual knowledge to the tune of receivers so that people get attracted first and then slowly get into the truth in course of time.

Shankara, first, attracted the egoistic and jealous atheists by Advaita through commentaries arguing with atheistic Buddhists and Purvamimamsakas and then propagated devotion and total surrender to the converted atheists into theists. Shirdi Sai Baba represents the adjustment of the truth to the frequency of existing human beings like adjusting the tune before singing the song and Satya Sai Baba represents the propagation of the divine knowledge like singing the song in the already adjusted and subsequently fixed tune. Shirdi Sai Baba limited Himself to a small place and that time was not with much developed science. Our elder generations were always without ego and with lot of devotion compared to the present generation. Atheists were almost absent. Hence, Baba was spreading devotion to Lord and total surrender to Him according to Ramanuja and Madhva by saying always “Allah Malik” (God is the Master). But today, Baba covers all the world, which is with well developed scientific thinking and widely spread atheism. The time and the range of coverage of space are different for Baba today. Hence, you find plenty of miracles meeting the challenge of science and atheism also. To pacify the ego of today, Baba has taken the weapon of Advaita of Shankara since the present atmosphere is almost similar to that of Shankara. Baba tuned His program in Shirdi to spread devotion, but by the time, He took another body, the need of that tune changed and hence, Baba tuned His program again to the present day.

Arjuna wanted to withdraw from the war to save the society and was prepared to sacrifice wealth of his family for the sake of the welfare of the society. But Krishna gave more importance to punish the evil forces as a witness for the future regarding the divine administration of the world. Today, the case is reverse and modern Arjuna is looting the society through business, politics and corruption in the employment for the sake of luxuries of himself and his family. The welfare of the society is sacrificed for the luxuries of family. The atheism and rationalism have spread so much that people have lost even fear to hell and God. The priests, who are supposed to lead the society on the divine knowledge also became big businessmen and offer rituals as means to nullify sins and get the grace of God to continue the sins. In this atmosphere, for the sake of society, lot of miracles is the immediate requirement to establish the very existence of God, His divine administration and the unseen hell. Baba concentrated all His efforts including the concept of Nivrutti to rectify the Pravrutti of society, which is the immediate need. The Gita is for Pravrutti of majority of society and the Bhagavatam is for a few sages of Nivrutti and is a personal affair. The Bhagavatam is like a Research institute meant for a few research scholars (Nivrutti). The Gita is like the non-formal adult education to spread basic literacy in the masses.

Use of Miracles in Pravrutti and Nivrutti

Miracles are useful to change the theists converted into atheists temporarily by ignorance. Cosmic vision was useful to rectify Arjuna and Udanka but the same vision was not useful at all to bring even a trace of change in Duryodhana. The Lord in preaching the Gita spent lot of time and very little time was spent in showing cosmic vision. It is the Gita that transformed Arjuna and cosmic vision plays a minor role only, because Arjuna continued questioning the Lord even after cosmic vision. In such case, mere miracles without knowledge are of no use at all. Devotees to solve their problems only but not to change them will exploit mere miracles. I like to tell you about a small miracle shown by Lord Datta through this human body. A devotee does not believe the concept of human incarnation and he believes that only the statue of Lord Venkateshwara on the seven hills is the God. His wife is believer of the concept of contemporary human incarnation and was devoted to God Datta through this human form. Several times, she had smelt the divine scents given by Lord Datta through Me. Her husband mocked at her ignorance. She prayed Me to change her husband also and make a devotee of human incarnation. Immediately, he also got the scent of lotus flowers from Me. He did not believe it and told that I am possessing some chemical with Me since I am a Professor of Chemistry. But the scent did not leave him even though he has gone to his house. He searched all over the house thoroughly stating that I might have placed some chemical in his house secretly with the help of his wife. No chemical was found. The scent did not leave him for one month continuously even though he left the city and went far and far from the city. He left the city and stayed in other cities far from this city for several days but the scent does not leave him like the Vishnuchakra not leaving Durvasa. The intensity of scent increased day by day and became pungent. He consulted expert ENT doctors, who said that nothing was found. He does not change his concept and still denies the concept of human incarnation. Due to continuous scent, he became very much disturbed and dejected. He became almost a severe patient and finally fell down helplessly. His wife and other devotees asked him to accept the concept, but still he is standing on his original concept only. Finally, his wife and other devotees prayed Me to withdraw the scent since his life is in danger without proper food and sleep. Immediately, he was relieved from the scent. Still, he is a believer of the statue of the Lord only! He told that I did some black magic on him! Therefore, there is no use of miracles in Nivrutti. They have some use in Pravrutti to create fear for sin due to existence of unimaginable power.

Shirdi Sai Baba also experienced a defeat from Tamboli in boxing. Krishna ran away to Dwaraka by the invasion of Jarasandha on Madhura. Rama became unconscious by the serpent weapon (Nagastra) in the war. Parashurama was insulted by the defeat in the hands of Rama. Shiva was defeated by Krishna in the war of Banasura. Jesus could not save Himself from the insults and crucifixion in the end and the soldiers mocked at Him. What is the essence of all these events? The message and the secret of the events of God is always multi-dimensional. God is in fond of all types of roles in His creation. He likes to act in the role of success as well as in the role of defeat like a cinema actor fascinated in acting variety of roles. The Veda says that one of the roles that fascinated is thief (Taskaranam pataye…) as you find in the incarnation of Krishna. Another dimension is to transfer the defeat of His devotee on to Himself, which is the result of his sin and relieve the devotee from the sin. Jesus suffered the sins of all His close devotees through crucifixion. It is not correct to say that He suffered the sins of all the human beings irrespective of devotion. It is said in the Bible that He came to save His people. It is not said that He came to save all the people without discrimination. Another dimension is to give message to devotees that one should take success and defeat with equal spirit. Another dimension is to test the firmness in the faith of the devotees who already believed Him as God. Another dimension is to pacify the jealousy that comes up from the subconscious state of the devotees due to repulsion with contemporary human form. Another dimension is to give some strength to atheists who are given the role of opposition to human incarnation. The producer of cinema gives remuneration even to the actor playing in the role of villain in cinema. God created Satan to test Himself when He came in the role of human incarnation as Jesus. The producer may enter into the cinema in the role of hero and is opposed by the role of villain in the cinema, but as producer he gives remuneration to the actor in the role of villain also. Hence, Jesus told us to hate the sin and not the sinner. It means to hate the role of Satan but not the actor in the role of Satan created by God. God acted in a role of Jesus to preach the response of a devotee to Satan.

Hence, you have to understand the significance of the knowledge from the moon, airport, Baba sitting there for some time in terms of cosmic vision, as I explained to you in the beginning. Any part of this world is giving knowledge to you. Baba told that God is expressed as this world. It means that the world (Brahmanda) containing five elements, life as trees, mind as birds and animals and intelligence as human beings represented by the human being (Pindanda) made of gross body with five elements, Jiivatman made of life, mind and intelligence becomes the medium of God in the case of contemporary human incarnation, which is Shri Satya Sai Baba Himself. The returning of Baba without performing the miracle is a test for the firmness of the faith of devotees, who believed this contemporary human incarnation. The ego and jealousy hidden in the sub-consciousness of any devotee will now be provoked by the atheists to slip from the faith. After all, the atheists are playing their due roles given by God in testing the faith of devotees and the devotees must play their due roles given by God by keeping their faith doubled by this incident.

The whole life of Baba preaching the devotees is long academic year of study and this incident in His last stage of life is annual examination conducted as usual to Lord Datta. You should not blame atheists also because what all they say pertains to several fraud human incarnations, who are doing miracles through magic only. There is nothing to oppose in the creation of God and you have to take everything in positive sense only as the message of God. Baba told that if somebody criticizes Him as hair-basket Baba, He is not worried since it is truth. If somebody criticizes Him as bald-headed Baba, then also, He is not worried since it is a lie. Hence, in any case, tension and reaction are meaningless since the criticism is either perfectly true or perfectly false. The criticism of atheists is perfectly true in the case of false human incarnations and perfectly false in the case of Baba. Every devotee of Baba must maintain such analysis and attitude in the life and the balanced and calm face of Baba in this situation is a practical demonstration of His message of Pravrutti already given to all the devotees. Baba will be the happiest if devotees practice the knowledge given in His speeches.

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